The American Muslim convert who plotted to assassinate me and slaughter everyone who attended our free speech event in Garland, Texas got 30 years today at his sentencing hearing in Texas. We were targeted for death in the first ISIS attack on American soil because we violated the free speech prohibitions under Islamic law.

This attack was a declaration of war in the homeland. Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem should have gotten a life sentence at Gitmo.

Freedom of speech is the foundation of a free society. Without it, a tyrant can wreak havoc unopposed, while his opponents are silenced.

Islamic law forbids criticism of Islam, Quran, Muhammad. If they cannot be criticized in the US, we are in effect accepting Islamic law as overriding the freedom of speech. This would establish Muslims as a protected class and prevent honest discussion of how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism.

The Muhammad cartoons are a flash point in the discussion about free speech because according to Islamic law they are blasphemy, punishable by death. Many have been killed over them. At issue is whether we will protect those who draw them and exhibit them, and thereby protect free speech and free society, or censor ourselves and others over them, thereby in effect adopting Sharia.

ISIS SUPPORTER SENTENCED TO PRISON IN MUHAMMAD CARTOON CONTEST ATTACK

An American-born Muslim convert convicted of supporting the Islamic State terror group and helping to plot a 2015 attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years behind bars.

Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem told the judge in Phoenix he “had nothing to do” with the attack. However, authorities said Kareem provided the cash that his two friends – Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi – used to open fire outside the anti-Islam event in Garland.

Simpson and Soofi were killed in a police shootout outside the contest and a security guard was wounded. No one else was hurt.Prosecutors sought a life sentence for Kareem, who became the second person in the U.S. to be convicted of charges of supporting ISIS. He was convicted of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, interstate transportation of firearms and other charges.

During the investigation, police found that Kareem has hosted two ISIS followers in his home to discuss the attack. It’s still unknown whether the Texas attack was inspired by ISIS or carried out in response to an order from the group.

Prosecutors have said Kareem watched videos depicting violence by jihadists with the two friends, encouraged them to launch violent attack to support the terrorist group and researched travel to the Middle East to join Islamic State fighters.

Authorities also said Kareem inquired about explosives to blow up the Arizona stadium where the 2015 Super Bowl was held, but later set his sights on the cartoon contest after the stadium plan fell through.

The verdicts against Kareem nearly a year ago marked the second conviction of someone within the United States on charges of supporting the Islamic State. He was convicted of conspiring to support a foreign terrorist organization, interstate transportation of firearms and other charges.

Kareem denies involvement in the plan to attack the contest, testifying that he didn’t know his friends were going to attack the contest and didn’t find out about the shooting until after Simpson and Soofi were killed.